Buying an AGP video card.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:41 pm

A buddy of mine has a 4 year old Dell computer that he does art work with photoshop and plays FPS. His AGP video card recently died and he's looking to replace it. He doesn't want to spend any more than $200 on a new card because of the PC's age. So far I've been able to find several cards that meet his criteria, but I have a couple questions.

Would you go with the Radeon X1650PRO or the GeForce 7600GS?

Based on the age of his PC, do you think he'd get that much benefit out of having 512MB vs 256MB?

Thanks in advance.

Post by **plained** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 3:48 pm

the one with the good warranty

Post by **mac** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 4:39 pm

depends on his computer specs.. even a 4 year old computer can be reasonable nowerdays..

Post by **Foo** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 5:50 pm

Yeah depends on the specs. If the PC has 512Mb ram, then a 256Mb card would be max. Arguably, there's less point going above 256Mb with an AGP card regardless.

If he can squeeze a RAM upgrade or knock the processor up to the highest his mobo can take, and buy a slightly older card, he'd see most benefit.

Having said all that, if he's using it for Photoshop and he's considering a new graphics card now, chances are he's hopped it up already and it's got more ram. My preference would be for the radeon card as they seem to do better on lower spec hardware than equivalent generation geforce cards.

Post by **seremtan** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 6:02 pm

i have the 7600GS - it's a good midrange card, and cheap with it

Post by **MKJ** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 7:03 pm

what kind of fps' does he want to play?
i mean you can run Quake3 on max detail on a GF3 ..

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:53 pm

I believe he has 1gig of RAM. He also plays Americas Army and BF2 now, but it lags like a bitch. My thinking is that his current CPU wouldn't even be able to utilize 512MB of RAM, so why waste the cash. He also already has a Radeon 9800 installed (Upgraded to that a couple of years ago through Dell). So a Radeon to Radeon transition would be easier. What I'm looking for are people who may have one of these cards or know the performance differences.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 8:57 pm

seremtan wrote:i have the 7600GS - it's a good midrange card, and cheap with it

Do you game with it? If so, what do you play and how are the frame rates at 1024x768.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Mon Jan 01, 2007 11:41 pm

This is my current spec's

AMD 64 3200+ @ 2.5 ( 20X 250FSB )
1 gig OCZ DDR-530 ( cas 2 )
BFG 7600 GS OC 512mb ( 440 core / 630mhz mem )

Etc,

and i game with it all the time man, i play bf2 @ 1920X1200 with everything on MED with 100% drawdistance, i AVG around 30Fps unless i am in an Arty strikle then i am down to ~5fps

HL2/CSS/HL:EP1/DOD:S i play at 1680 x 1050 everything on High and i dont get anything under 100fps.

Gimmie something that you want me to run, and at what settings and when i get time i will run them for ya

Btw, with this BFG, the warrenty is a lifetime one, so you cant beat that

Post by **§ìgñå** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 2:06 am

YourGrandpa wrote:Would you go with the Radeon X1650PRO or the GeForce 7600GS?

the question is.. can a 4 year old dell's psu provide enough power for the newer graphics cards. ?!

Post by **ALLiED** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:54 am

I thought Dell integrated all their crap? Especially the video card.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 8:15 am

dzjepp wrote:amidy

yes?

ALLiED: you are right in some cases, that is esp true when you guy there lower/mid towers.. but there are number of them that come with expantion slots.

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 3:20 pm

I see a couple of people have the 7600GS and it looks like it'll do the job. But the Radeon (at least on paper) has a faster GPU and RAM. So I'm kind of still on th fence here. I'd also like to know if anyone could confirm that it would be better to have the 512MB of RAM over the 256MB.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 5:44 pm

The X1650 has more Raw power, and it a faster card, but its Shadermodel is lower and etc, so in apps that uses That SM then the 7600 is faster.

its kinda a toss up.

anyway, read up

http://www.techspot.com/review/24-radeo ... ce-7600gs/

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:11 pm

Sweet.

Post by **zolborg** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 6:24 pm

For your info, the x1650 sucks wind. I bought it to try it out a while ago and it benches quite a lot less than my 9800Pro with 128MB Ram. Of course I took it back.

Go for the 7600.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:05 pm

indeed, my vote is for the 7600....

Post by **YourGrandpa** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:18 pm

After reading that article, I may go this route.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814150210

It's only 256MB, but it's in his price range.

Post by **AmIdYfReAk** » Tue Jan 02, 2007 7:27 pm

i payed 165.99 Canadian for mine, that cant be the right price.

this is a little beter..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814143069

edit: woah, that is a GT? i havent seen a GT in AGP before.. only the GS's..

So uhh, yea... Go with that

Post by **Magestic** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:07 pm

AmIdYfReAk wrote:indeed, my vote is for the 7600....

:icon14: :icon14:

Buying an AGP video card.

Buying an AGP video card.

Re: Buying an AGP video card.